Monday, March 30, 2015

BEIJING, March 30 (ChinaMil) -- In order to promote its maneuvering combat capability, the Air Force of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLAAF) for the first time organized its aviation troops to go to the airspace above the West Pacific Ocean to carry out military training, Shen Jinke, spokesman of the PLA Air Force, said in south China’s Guangzhou province on March 30, 2015.

The warplanes of the PLA Air Force flew to the West Pacific for training via the Bashi Channel on March 30 and returned on the same day after finishing the training and achieving the given goal, according to Shen.

Training in the airspace far from China is an effective way for the PLA Air Force to temper its combat capability and also a common practice of world powers' air forces, Col. Shen said.

Shen said that the military training in the airspace above the Western Pacific by the PLA Air Force is a routine arrangement of the annual training plan for the PLA Air Force and also a normal requirement of China's national defense construction.

Shen pointed out that this training by the PLA Air Force complies with relevant international laws and practices, is not aimed at any country or target and poses no threat to any country or region.

Monday, January 05, 2015

Photo of the day: The aggressor H-6K practicing a low-level penetration
bomb run against a PLAAF anti-defense brigade during a confrontational
drill

The newsworthy of this picture is not the low-level penetration bomb run
-- which the K model is primarily designed to perform -- rather the
serial number of 11193 confirming that the PLAAF 8th Bomber Division now
has at least 14 H-6K (god of war) model in its orbat.

The other H-6K unit is the PLAAF 10th bomber division

Sunday, November 17, 2013

PLAAF "in the news" of the day: H-6K, god-of-war (small g)

H-6K bombers delivered to PLA Air Force

By Chen Boyuan
China.org.cn, June 22, 2013

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2013-06/22/content_29197824.htm

The
Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force recently received 15 H-6K
bombers with nuclear capabilities, according to British military digest
Jane’s Defence Weekly.

The H-6K, an updated version of the H-6
bomber, is a medium-sized craft designed for long-range attacks,
stand-off attacks and large-area air patrol. Unlike its predecessor, the
H-6K can carry cruise missiles under its wings. The H6-K also maneuvers
more deftly than the H-6 and requires a smaller crew to operate. Jane’s
Defence was the first media outlet to confirm that the H6-K had
formally entered active service.

The most visible departure from
the H-6 is the H6-K’s nose, where a nose randome has replaced a
navigation cabin. Military expert Fu Qianshao said that the H6-K’s nose
should greatly improve avionics, search and detection, navigation, fire
control and weapon precision.

Fu said that the H-6K has a larger
engine inlet than does the H-6, which may mean that the newer bomber’s
engines have greater thrust. If so, the H-6K would also have a greater
maximum takeoff weight and payload than the H-6. A more favorable
weight-to-thrust ratio would improve fuel efficiency and lengthen
cruising range, Fu said.

H-6K reportedly has a combat radius of
3,500 KM. The nuclear-capable Changjian (long sword)-10 cruise missiles
it carries have a range of 1,500-2,000 KM, effectively extending the
bomber’s combat range to 4,000-5,000 KM - long enough to reach Okinawa,
Guam and even Hawaii from China’s mainland.

Analysts stipulated
that PLA Air Force missiles be able to reach Taiwan, southwestern Japan
and Guam, a range of control that requires a 3,000-KM combat radius and
powerful attack capability. Only the combined combat radii of the H6-K
and Changjian-10 currently satisfy the length requirement.

Wang said the foreign ministry activated its emergency response system on Thursday night when the air strikes started.

On
Friday, China's naval escort mission in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia
was abruptly suspended. The China Shipowners' Association, which
announced the suspension, said it did not know when it would resume.

The
mission's fleet comprises two guided-missile frigates - the Linyi and
the Weifang - and the supply ship Weishanhu. Dozens of special forces
soldiers are among the 700 or so crew, according to China News Service.

In
2011, more than 35,000 Chinese were evacuated from Libya during its
civil war. Last summer, more than 1,000 Chinese nationals were withdrawn
after new conflicts broke out.

India yesterday said it was
preparing to fly out about 4,100 stranded citizens from Yemen. Pakistan
said it had sent a jumbo jet and a naval frigate to evacuate its
citizens and diplomatic staff.

More than 200 staff from the UN, embassies and other organisations were evacuated by air on Saturday, aid workers said.

Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Associated Press

Saturday, February 26, 2011

CDF OpEd: China's Evacuation from Libya

By Mr. Unknown.

China’s ongoing evacuation of its citizens from a chaotic Libya is
starting to draw close scrutiny from pundits due to the PLAN’s use of a
054A class Frigate (Xuzhou, FFG-530) amongst other civilian means of
evacuation. Unsurprisingly, we can leave it to some media outlets to
exaggerate this action into nothing less than old school imperialist
“gunboat diplomacy.”

A not-so-subtle proclamation of China’s “menacing” display of naval
power came from the Council on Foreign Relation’s (CFR) Elliot Abrams,
who wrote the following on the CFR blog, (here)

“In recent days, the White House has been saying
that the United States had to watch its words and actions because
American citizens were at risk in Libya. So instead of acting, we are
building a diplomatic coalition. China has taken a different tack:
to use power. Instead of biting their tongue, the Chinese appear to be
making it clear to the Qadhafi regime that no danger to Chinese
workers will be tolerated.”

An even more provocative article titled “China Fills Libya Power Void”
appeared on the website of Investor’s Business Daily, which compared
China’s supposed “assertiveness” to “US inaction,”

“Up until now, the conventional thinking from the Tom
Friedman crowd claims that China is somehow engaged in a new model of
commercial engagement abroad, quite unlike the old empires of the past
that projected military power. That theory is out the window now with this naval action. China will defend its own, same as any other empire.”

“China's assertiveness in the Libyan crisis
stands in contrast to that of the U.S. By the time we found a vessel to
ferry a mere 600 nationals out of the country, the Chinese had already
transported 12,000 of its people to Crete… China is setting a
precedent with its newfound show of force.”

Instead of “praising” China’s “new-found assertiveness,” perhaps the
authors should have asked why the PLAN was able to sail into Libya with
impunity? And why neither the rebels nor the Libyan government
questioned whether China has ulterior motives other than ferrying its
citizens away from the cross-fire? The correct answer is NOT China’s
determined “show of force” or “power projection,” but its record of
restrained and infrequent use of force, coupled with its consistent
policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states.
Having built up its “street-cred” in Africa as a non-intrusive
business partner, China provoked no suspicions from either side of the
Libyan upheaval on the rare occasion that it used military assets as
part of the evacuation.

The authors of the aforementioned articles have drawn precisely the
opposite conclusion that should have been reached. China’s relatively
smooth evacuation vis-a-vis US awkwardness represents NOT the need for
aggressive intervention, but rather the power of restraint surmounting
that of forceful coercion.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The Army Command Headquarters (ACH, 陸軍司令部) yesterday said that it has ordered the immediate removal of a controversial Army recruitment poster and is conducting internal discussions to determine the proper punishment for personnel responsible for creating the poster.

According to the Chinese-language Apple Daily, a reader revealed a controversial poster on Saturday and claimed that the poster was found during a family reunion day at the 206th Army Infantry Brigade (陸軍步兵206旅) located in Guanxi Township, Hsinchu County.

Reportedly, the poster in question is a recruitment poster for the Republic of China Army (R.O.C.A.) seeking to draft full-time soldiers. However, the Apple Daily reader reportedly noticed that the servicemen on the poster were People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers from mainland China, and not from Taiwan.

The reader was quoted as questioning whether the R.O.C.A. and the PLA are both classified as one Chinese army.

The mistake allegedly happened when Army officers conducted online picture searches to create the poster. Investigations have revealed that the said officers mistook PLA military men for R.O.C.A. soldiers, which resulted in the making of the controversial poster.

In response, an officer from the ACH stated that the poster was used for recruitment, and its immediate removal of was ordered following confirmation that the soldiers in the poster were indeed not of the R.O.C.A.

The officer said that the commanding officers have begun to look into the situation, and will deliver punishments to responsible parties accordingly. The ACH will also adopt the case as a lesson to learn from to prevent future errors from happening.

The ACH will take responsibility for the situation and reflect on the mistake, and will also strengthen the screening process for its pro motional mediums, the officer said.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Since this blog's last entry on the Kokang conflict, the Tatmadaw has resumed its air operations and now massing IFVs and Assault Guns for a major push. The Tatmadaw might be under-performing but they do have time, material and numbers on their side, a reality the MNDAA needs to consider.

As pointed out by the recent RAND report "China's Incomplepete Military Transformation -- Assessing the Weakness of the People's Liberation Army" that folks in China, both civilian analysts as well as PLA Military Professionals, are well-ware of their own weaknesses and they are taking steps to correct them, albeit at a slow pace. Building additional replenishment tankers for the Navy is a good case-in-point so are allowing PLAAF pilots free air combat training and improving training at the command level for the ground force.

The PLA has come a long way in terms of its budget and hardware, but it still lags behind in many aspects on order to be considered a "world class" military, that much is for certain.

The Air Force of the Chinese People's Liberation
Army (PLAAF) has introduced automatic flight quality assessment system
to improve the flight training efficiency of its aviation troops.
Jointly developed by the PLAAF Armament Research Institute and
related universities, the new technology for flight training quality and
safety monitoring and assessment was recently applied in the annual
flight data interpretation and analysis in an aviation regiment under.
With this assessment system, the processing of the flight data of the
whole regiment in the last 12 months was complete in only half an hour,
according to China Military Online.
Without making any modification to the aircraft, this system can
utilize the existing equipment mounted in the aircraft to automatically
detect flight abnormalities, risky maneuvers and operation deviation and
carry out automatic interpretation and analysis of the flight data,
according to Liu Changwei, person-in-charge of the R&D group for the
system and director of a research office with the PLAAF Armament
Research Institute.
Meng Fansheng, an ace air force pilot was quoted as saying that it
used to take half an hour to manually interpret the data for one-hour
flight, but now, the result of the flight data analysis can be obtained
within minutes. It is also able to monitor each maneuver during the
flight, which will help promote detailed flight training and upgrade
training efficiency.
The assessment system has now been widely promoted in the PLAAF and
is also introduced to the aviation force of the PLA Navy, the report
added.

YINCHUAN, March25 (ChinaMil) -- About 400 officers including the military officers, chiefs of staff and heads of training departments above the regiment level gathered in a troop unit on March 23 to attend a 5-day concentration training organized by the Lanzhou Military Area Command (MAC) of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The concentration training is designed to correct the shortcomings existing in the training of basic subjects in the troops which could be described as "incomplete, non-standard, inaccurate, unskillful".

According to the Outline for Military Training and Evaluation of the PLA, the combat troop units should carry out training of basic subjects for five and a half months each year. "The level of basic training is directly related to the combat capability and the powerful combat capability is established on the solid basic training," Cao Yimin, commander of the 21th Combined Corps told PLA Daily. He joined the officers to take part in the concentration training.

The leading officials of the Lanzhou MAC told PLA Daily that the concentration training is expected to help improve the level of the attendees in instructing and organizing basic training, so as to promote the overall improvement of the basic training level of all the units in the military area command.

The instructors who will give lectures or on-site demonstrations include commanding officers of divisions, battalions and companies, as well as ordinary non-commissioned officers. Most of them come from the 21th Combined Corps of the PLA.

All the trainees are required to participate in the concentration training as ordinary soldiers, regardless of their age and ranking.

Since 90% of Kokang's population are ethnic Han-Chinese (and their currency is the RMB), their armed struggle against the Tatmadaw is winning a great deal of sympathy inside of the People’s Republic. Despite people’s misgiving about the MNDAA’s leader Yang Mai-liang, they’d consider foot soldiers of the MNDAA “one of the good guys”, “fighting a good fight”, if internet rants are to be believed.

A MNDAA solider's salary is 600 RMB a month, they could make three times of that by working as laborers inside of China.